House of horrors

House of horrors: a camera was hidden in the duck

For those whose idea of household maintenance means picking up the phone instead of the hammer, rogue traders can prove a costly headache.

So after receiving almost 2,000 complaints last year, Surrey Trading Standards decided to take matters into their own hands.

They rented a house - and turned it into a sting operation to catch the cowboys on DVD.

What they found astonished them.

One in four of the tradesmen they picked at random tried to rip them off - and they even managed to catch one builder on camera as he peed into a vase in the loft, and then emptied the contents into the household water tank.

Breakfast's Jules Botfield explored the House of Horrors built by Surrey trading standards officers.